Talk:California Jam

This article has so many problems - I have to change it
First off it's not objective. Clearly a deep purple nut came in and wrote this. How could deep purple be the best selling group since '72? That's ambiguous language. if you want to say they sold more units in '73 than anyone else, you may be right, but find the evidence first.

Also there is no such thing as a virtuoso performance. A virtuoso is a person.

the person who wrote in the ELP set list is not thinking. That's just what was released on DVD.

Also Emerson wasn't playing karn evil 9 or anything while the piano was spinning. A piano can't function upside down. I believe a tape played.

I had written much of this article in an objective fashion that was more informative about ELP's and Deep Purple's performances before this. I am going to revise it again. This is written like a diary entry: "Now not to mention ELP." It is subjective and ambiguous. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alsamar3 (talk • contribs) 21:34, 26 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Agreed on the Deep Purple issue. This article really isn't about California Jam; it's about Deep Purple. 76.174.152.175 (talk) 19:12, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

"California Jam" or "Cal Jam"?
I have always heard this concert referred to as "Cal Jam" -- never "California Jam". That's how it's referred to, for example, in Edward Macan, Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, pages 330-33, 560, 615, 616, and 644. And the great Los Angeles D.J., Jim Ladd, refers to the concerts as "Cal Jam" and "Cal Jam II" -- never as "California Jam" -- in his book Radio Waves: Life and Revolution on the FM Dial (pages 226, 227, 228, 230, 231, 232, 263).

On the other hand, Marley Brant, Join Together: Forty Years of the Rock Music Festival has a chapter entitled "California Jam II" (but no chapter on the first C.J.) -- but the people he interviews often call it "Cal Jam" and "Cal Jam II" (e.g., p. 143).

Can anyone verify what the official name of this concert was? Can anyone verify what name was used in the marketing and advertising? Can anyone verify what name the fans and attendees used when talking about the concert (before and after the event)? &mdash; Lawrence King ( talk ) 20:18, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

It's been a couple weeks, and no responses. Any objections to moving this page to "Cal Jam", and mentioning both names in the introductory sentence? &mdash; Lawrence King ( talk ) 02:51, 31 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The event was originally promoted as "California Jam" - "Cal Jam" may be a nickname it picked up in some circles, but the current article title is the correct one. See | the original promotional announcement from the LA Times, the | original poster, the title card from the broadcast, etc. etc.  Jgm (talk) 18:55, 31 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Okay. I kept the page where it was, and added "Cal Jam" as an alternate name at the top.  Based on my research, it seems that within California, it was always called "Cal Jam" when speaking of it (thus Jim Ladd's book uses that term exclusively), but the further you get from California the less often the name was abbreviated.  In any event, as you point out, the official name was "California Jam". &mdash; Lawrence King ( talk ) 23:54, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

COI edits and editor
All these edits Here done by This Editor, about himself. Blatant COI   Mlpearc   Pull My Chain   Trib's  02:12, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

I edited out the references to Scott Lifshine on May 1, 2011. I believe I helped to make the article more neutral this way. Pennsylvania56 (talk) 23:26, 4 June 2011 (UTC)Pennsylvania56Pennsylvania56 (talk) 23:26, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Amplifer explosion
I don't think that was a mishap. I think Richie wanted that to happen. :-)

Thinkingamericanist (talk) 02:42, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

I worked on the video footage for the BBC Video release and the band's manager, Tony Edwards (lovely man) told me that the speaker cabinet was filled with petrol fumes and rigged to 'explode'. So I think that story is true.

Delverie (talk) 19:27, 22 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Yes, DP fan publications such as "Darker Than Blue" have told this story many times. The gasoline was planned, however, the size of the explosion was bigger than expected! Fire extinguishers were on hand, of course, and Glenn escaped the CO2 fog while Paice bravely carried on in the middle of a cloud. 50.111.48.57 (talk) 07:13, 31 May 2019 (UTC)